Episode Of Witt
by nvzblgrrl
Summary: A little one shot concerning a bit of Witt's backstory and what happens when the crew realizes that they almost missed his birthday.


**Just a little one-shot that I decided to do. We probably won't reach this point in the story for a while, since I haven't even gotten to Robin yet, but it demanded to be written.**

**It's going to alternate between current time and flashback. Flashback will be in_ italics._**

* * *

Witt looked out across the grassy deck of the Thousand Sunny, not smiling for once, instead wearing a lost, almost empty, unreadable expression. Since this is right up there with Luffy not being interested in food in terms of daylight weirdness, it noticed by everyone on board.

"Are you feeling sick, Witt?" Chopper asked after a while. The little reindeer was still wearing the flashy paper birthday hat that they had given him a few days ago for his birthday. Christmas was since past, and it was now the 27th.

Luffy and Usopp were fishing off the side of the ship, listening in.

The first mate blinked. "Ah, sorry." He grinned, though it was forced and thin compared to his normal expression. "Just… thinking, I guess."

"Sounds hard." Luffy said, turning around to look at his first mate.

"What about Witt?" Usopp asked, still watching the water for an indication of fish.

The first mate shrugged, leaning back into the main mast. "Ah… my birthday."

"When is it?" Chopper asked, expression as alert as always.

"Tomorrow." Witt said.  
"WHAT?" Luffy almost fell off the ship. "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL US?" He screamed.

* * *

_"When is your birthday again?" A man asked from behind his newspaper. There was an empty plate in front of him and a half-empty cup of black coffee._

_"Tomorrow, daddy." Mercy replied quietly as she looked down at the floor. She was small, even for an eight year old, with a fairly neutral chin length hair cut that was almost an exact copy of Robin's childhood style and an oversized flannel nightdress with a blue and white snowflake pattern._

_Her dad flipped down the newspaper he was reading. He was silver-haired, even though he was barely in his forties, with grey eyes that didn't quite focus on what he was looking at. His formal suit looked out of place in the faded wallpaper of the kitchen while Mercy, in her flannel nightdress, looked much more at home, if only as part of the background. In comparison, Gale Dewitt was a man who demanded respect, and often times got it._

_"Oh, right." He said, turning his attention back to the obituaries. "Did you invite anyone?" Stupid question, child didn't have any friends…_

_"You said no to the list." Mercy whispered._

_"You only wanted to invite boys." Gale said. Just like her mother. Loose._

_"Because they're my friends." It was a barely audible whisper. Unacceptable._

_He cleared his throat. "Hn. Why can't you be friends with any of the girls? Savannah was friends with you…"_

_Mercy's eyes hardened. "She stole my piggy bank the last time you invited her." She said stiffly. That's right, Marianne thought that they'd be good for one another… and that the kids could keep each other amused._

_"Really?" Gale switched his attention to her without blinking. Watching. Studying. Are you worth my time?_

_"And she stole momma's necklace the time before that." The little girl left out the part where she beat the hell out of the thief when she caught her at school with it. One did not just take Mercy's only memento of her dead mother and walk away unscathed. If the bite marks stuck around a bit longer than anything else, well, that wasn't her problem._

_A moment of steel. Nothing more. Back to the paper. "Well, it wasn't worth anything. I don't see why you're concerned." He said. The necklace was cheap, with a little fake-silver horse riding on a black bauble. Didn't even shine like a true stone. Worthless._

_"But it's all I… mine." Mercy said. "And stealing is wrong." Her eyes darted to him at this, waiting for the other shoe to drop, for the lecture of 'the dead aren't your problem, get over it' to commence._

_It didn't. He either didn't notice the near slip or ignored it. "At least I've been able to teach you that." He sipped at his coffee. "Your grandfather is coming to visit, of course." There was no question as to which grandparent this was. "You're dismissed." He added, even after Mercy had already darted out of the room. Untrainable, really. He sighed. What a waste._

* * *

Witt looked to the side. "Birthdays aren't a big thing in my family." He said after a moment.

"So we'll have an extra big party!" Luffy declared, clapping his feet together and giggling.

"What's this about a feast?" Sanji asked as he walked out on deck, a large platter of drinks carefully balanced in his left hand.

"Witt's birthday is tomorrow!" Chopper yelled.

"And he didn't tell us, the jerk!" Luffy added at a similar volume.

"What?" Franky yelled as he pulled himself out of the cannon he was working on, flipping up his shades. "I know you like to be cool, Witt-aniki, but there's such a thing as over doing a thing!"

"You've never said anything about your family before, Witt." Nami said, leaning over the railing of the staircase.

Chopper looked over to the mysterious First Mate. "Ah! Tell us about your home! It'll be a nice story!"

The fake smile twitched towards a frown as Witt said nothing for a minute. "Maybe."

* * *

_Grandpa Dewitt had died long before Gale had even met Mercy's mother on some cross country trip of self-discovery. Grandpa Pierce AKA Grandpa Hawk was actually the only one left out of all of the grandparents and, in Mercy's opinion; there was no finer outcome in that department. Grandma Dewitt had been something of a harpy._

_He normally stayed in Maine, a little place called Crabapple Cove that Mercy couldn't quite remember clearly, having only been there once or twice when her mother was still alive. She did remember the carpet in Grandpa Hawk's house; an ugly-beautiful 70's shag that was, amazingly, camouflage colored._

_In comparison, her father's house was poorly wood paneled, every board managing to buck up just enough to make the whole thing a creaking, uneven mess, which was explained quite thoroughly by his proud stories of having helped put it in himself when he was six 'which was more than what I expect from you, so stop complaining' and shuffling ones feet was an invitation to splintery hell._

_Mercy sometimes wondered if the house a person lived in changed to feel like the person who lived there._

* * *

The Sunny was a relaxed atmosphere that almost encouraged people to fill the air with jokes and stories. Witt closed his eyes, leaning back against the main mast and listened to the ocean. Relax.

Well, it would have been easier without the questions.

"Well, what was it like in Murica?" Nami asked. "Why don't you start there?"

"It's… rather boring." He said after a moment. "Lots of hills and thick forests in my part of the country. Boiling hot summers. Miserably wet springs and falls. Frightfully cold with lots of snow in the winter." Witt looked up into the blue sky. "Certainly not enough of this."

Robin watched him with that same enigmatic smile. "Sounds like a large place, if you make a distinction between the biomes of different parts of it."

Witt made a noncommittal noise. "Yeah. Grandpa lived on the East Coast. My father and I lived in the Mid-West, so he didn't visit as much as I would have liked."

"Ah? What's he like?"

The first mate grabbed the dog-tags dangling around his neck, smiling wistfully. "The finest kind."

* * *

_Benjamin Franklin Pierce wasn't… a hippy, to say. He was relaxed, fun-loving, and pacifistic, but he wasn't even close to the free-wheeling, slow speaking image ingrained into the national unconsciousness. He kept his hair practical, he was quick and sarcastic with his words, and he was as crafty as any given fox in the forest._

_So, naturally, Gale Dewitt hated him at a cellular level._

_When Grandpa Pierce arrived later that day, he was greeted to the sight of a thoroughly bundled up Mercy shoveling snow off the front porch with a shovel that was almost as tall as she was._

_"Little on the small side to be joining the Army just yet, ain't ya?" He said, raising an eyebrow behind his tinted glasses. Gale's habits had always been… strange. At least Karen's kid seemed happy, if unnaturally quiet for her age._

_"Grandpa!" Mercy squealed, dropping the shovel to throw herself at her spindly grandpa._

_"Hey there, short stuff." He said. "Miss me?"_

_"As much as the sky!" She declared._

_Hawkeye grinned. "Sounds like a lot. I missed you too, you know."_

_"Benjamin." Gale said stiffly from the doorway._  
_"Been a while, Ferret Face II." Hawk replied, smirking._  
_"Not long enough." The suited man muttered as the old man wheeled his suit case past him. He was ignored._

* * *

"He was a doctor?" Chopper asked, eyes starry as he looked up at Witt. "That's cool!"

"Army?" Zoro asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Wasn't his idea. He was drafted." Witt said plainly, not elaborating.

"'Drafted'?" Luffy asked.

Brook, of all people, was the one to answer this question. "It's something that many countries do in times of war, Luffy-san. It means the person must join the army or become a criminal."

Robin tilted her head. "I would think that one would hear about a war that serious if it was in the West Blue."

Witt laughed nervously. "Well, it actually wasn't… Because I kind of lied about where America was."

"WHAT?" They crew shouted.

* * *

_Mercy, now eighteen, stood in front of the portal that would take her to another world. She had a small canvas bag full of her belongings, and a nervous expression. Her grandfather stood next to her, both eyebrows showing over his shaded frames._

_"You sure about this?" Hawk asked._

_"... Yes." She said._

_He looked at the swirling blue and the dancing lights. "What's the series again?"_

_Mercy smiled. "One Piece."_

_"I guessing that it isn't a swimsuit calender." Hawk said after a moment. "I'll have to get started on it."_

_He watched as his granddaughter walked unflinchingly into the unknown, smiling as he shook his head._

* * *

"So Witt's an alien." Luffy declared.

"Ne… if you want to be technical, yes." Witt said sheepishly.

"You're a weird one, Witt-aniki." Franky said after the crew sat for a moment in silence.

Witt made a face. "I don't want to hear that from you." He muttered, turning his face away from the gathering mob.

"Yohohoho, and here I was concerned about the grim atmosphere of Thriller Bark having a negative effect on you." Brook said, hopping down to their level.

"Yeah, if you were just homesick, you could have just told us." Nami said with a huff.

"Let's have a big party to cheer you up!" Luffy announced.

"Tch, you're all such busy bodies." Witt said, even as he rubbed at his eyes.

"Are… you crying?" Sanji asked, slightly taken aback.

"Fool, I just… I just have a bug in my eye." Witt said, even as tears burbled out of his face.

* * *

**So there it is, just a little one shot that may or may not be worked into the story. I don't know.**


End file.
